GWAR’s Gor-Gor returns in sound and ink on The Return Of Gor-Gor as they keep evolving into something slimier, meaner, and more over the top than ever.
Four decades of blood-soaked mayhem isn’t enough for GWAR, so they’re mutating even more. With The Return Of Gor-Gor, from both Pit Records and Z2 Comics, the interplanetary overlords of shock rock are celebrating 40 years of carnage with a multimedia blast of flesh-ripping fury that includes three new songs, four pulverizing live tracks, and a brand-new 32-page comic that resurrects their most beloved, bloodthirsty dinosaur.
At the molten heart of this release is “The Great Circus Train Disaster,” a gonzo thrash anthem that comes with an animated short straight from the fever dreams of a ketamine bender. The video is classic GWAR - flaming elephants, mutated clowns, a doomed cotton candy vendor - all casualties of a nightmarish derailment that could only come from the minds behind Scumdogs Of The Universe. “The song just kinda came to us one day,” guitarist Grodius Maximus explains, with typical GWAR candor. “We were all hanging out injecting ketamine and crushed-up insects into our dick holes… When we came to, the song was fully formed.” That’s the band’s creative process in a nutshell… equal parts hallucination, horror, and what some might even call sheer genius.
But The Return Of Gor-Gor isn’t just another shock-fest. It’s also a twisted coming-of-age story told in comic form about an orphaned T-Rex cub, stranded in a world of filth and depravity, meeting the Scumdogs of the Universe. What follows? Only a battle for galactic domination or an unholy alliance the likes of which comics and metal have rarely seen.
This isn’t GWAR dipping a toe into transmedia storytelling, it’s them cannonballing into the void. The comic, rendered in gloriously grotesque detail, brings Gor-Gor’s saga to life while the EP’s new tracks double down on the band’s commitment to chaos, volume, and satirical destruction. The live cuts, captured on their most recent global rampage, remind you why GWAR remains one of the most punishing acts on stage. Even after 40 years, their shows are a wild mix of performance art, horror film, and punk-metal opera, all delivered with gallons of fake blood poured over relentless riffs.
Praise be to Gor-Gor. He has returned. And he’s hungry.